


Self Made Men

by shinodabear



Category: Captain America (2011), Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Community: cap_ironman, Gen, M/M, Unconventional Style, nonlinear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-12
Updated: 2012-02-12
Packaged: 2017-10-31 01:00:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/338166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinodabear/pseuds/shinodabear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Someday, you're gonna be very important to someone of mine," Howard once said to Steve. And he was right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Self Made Men

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "writing format: nonlinear" space on my [cap_ironman](www.dreamwidth.org/cap_ironman) [bingo card](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/Muccamukk/Cap-IM%20Bingo/shinodabear.jpg)

The blast came from behind and he didn't have his shield. He expected the heat of the fire, the sting of the shrapnel, the brunt of impact, but it didn't come. Iron Man dropped down beside him and pulled him up just in the nick of time. 

"Someday, you're gonna be very important to someone of mine," Howard confided in him as the gunfire ran into the ground directly in front of where they'd taken shelter. 

Although he was only a civilian, Howard never flinched at the sound of shells, never flinched at the sight of blood. Steve respected him. Most guys he knew who dodged the draft stayed the hell away from the war. Howard was a man who lived and breathed it; war meant innovation, and no one was innovation like Stark. He tested every new invention himself. 

They were on their way back from a test when they were taken by surprise. They'd find out who tipped off HYDRA to their location later; for now, it was about staying alive. "I've gotta protect my investment. Any smart businessman would do the same," Howard said, and then took off with a gun in his hand. 

"You can't just leave me here!" Steve shouted after him. There was little he could do on the rooftop of a skyscraper half a mile away. Even with his abilities, it would be inadvisable to jump to the nearest neighboring rooftop. He estimated that he was at least eighty floors high; he could take the stairs and be on the ground floor in two minutes. Add another three minutes to return to the site. He wouldn't be able to get too close without his – 

"Heads up, Captain," Iron Man said and the shield came spinning towards him. Steve caught it with his right and pulled his left arm through the straps. He smiled. "Thanks. Do I get a lift back to the action?"

"Always," Iron Man replied. 

Steve rode back from the test session with Howard. Things had gone well; at least, Howard had seemed pleased. But Howard was a busy man. If he wasn't working on one thing, he was working on the next. Steve made a comment to the effect of Howard working himself too hard. His brain needed to rest once in a while. "I'm a futurist," Howard said. "It's what I do."

"Predict the future?" Steve asked, peering over at the schematics and blueprints spread across Howard's lap.

"Smart, kid," he replied. "I work for the future. I make the future. I made you." Howard waved a hand idly in Steve's direction, a gesture which encompassed Steve's whole person. "I made you. You're the future." 

The words settled hollowly in Steve's ears. "With all due respect, Mr. Stark," he said, keeping his voice even, "I wasn't made." 

Howard's expression said a hundred different things, all of which aimed at appeasement. "Of course you weren't." And he left it at that. 

The ride back to base turned to one of strained silence. It was clear that Howard considered his involvement in the super soldier project to be more than Erskine's assistant. Steve hadn't known Howard for very long, but it didn't take very long to know that Howard was an exceptional man with an exceptional mind. He saw the world differently from everyone else and, perhaps unfortunately, that world Howard saw was a world in which he was king. But Steve couldn't fault him. Howard was a good man at heart. He'd made the shield and Steve's armor; he made the tanks, guns, and motorcycles; he was serving his country in the best way he could. 

Some men believed in God. Others in the girl back home waiting for them. Still others in the honor of serving their country. Howard Stark was man who believed in himself. And if that's what it took for him to put his life on the line to develop and test these brilliant inventions of his, then Steve could live with that. The man flew a plane into enemy territory for him. Steve didn't forget things like that. 

"What are you working on," he asked, hovering over Tony's shoulder. 

"Nothing you'd understand, Capsicle," Tony replied. 

Steve studied the blueprints that were pulled up on the interactive screen. It only took a few moments to realize what they were. Science could change over seventy years, but math didn't; not really. "You're reinforcing Clint's bow to compensate for the friction force necessary in flight situations," Steve announced. And then it clicked. "You're letting him ride outside the Quinjet to fire his bow! Tony! He's a worse adrenaline junkie than you!" Clint had made a comment last afternoon about firing from outside the jet for more practical access to the city. Steve had shot that idea down right away, but Tony had obviously caught on to the idea. 

Tony turned around, which turned him more into Steve than it did actually around. "You, uh. You got that?"

"I'm not stupid, you know. I have some experience with weapons design." 

"They're having some trouble with the ball turrets firing at high speeds," Howard said. "The mechanisms keep jamming because of the force generated from the speed. It's kid's stuff." 

"I don't understand." 

He could see Howard actually calculating the time it would take to get back to base from their current position. He decided it was enough time and asked, "You see these equations here?" He pointed to some scribblings in the right hand corner. He explained those to Steve, and then the next set, and the set after that. 

It was somewhere around the revised pin mechanism when the shell exploded and overturned their jeep. 

Iron Man and he touched down in the midst of the action, Thor and Black Widow were on scene. Steve could assume Hawkeye was around somewhere, too. 

"Hulk is on his way," Iron Man announced. "Bogie's on your six. Armored and armed. Seem intent on blowing stuff up rather than entering the fray. You wanna break for armor?"

Steve shook his head and adjusted his shield. "This is all I need." 

"This is all I need," Howard grunted as he and Steve crouched behind the jeep. He rubbed his eyes. "Steve," he said. And Steve looked over at him. "Someday, you're gonna be very important to someone of mine," Howard confided in him. "I've gotta protect my investment. Any smart businessman would do the same." And then he took off with a gun in his hand. 

Iron Man flew forward. Steve didn't stay put, he charged in behind him, eventually catching up. "You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to lose me," he said, dodging the debris. 

"Wouldn't dream of it," Iron Man replied and then increased the boosters. 

Howard had come back, of course. Steve wasn't going to let him do something so stupid alone. After a nasty wound to the head, Steve had to carry him out and walk him back to base. But Howard had still taken out three HYDRA operatives on his own and helped Steve incapacitate a fourth. Most of the rest of their convoy had made it out, and only handful of HYDRA operatives had escaped.

"Maybe next time," Steve said, handing Tony an apple juice cup, "you'll let me go in first." 

Tony glowered, then crossed his arms (to the best that he could with a bandaged wrist and newly-reset shoulder). Steve bent the straw and urged Tony to drink. 

"You're kidding me," Tony said.

Steve pressed the juice cup closer. "The nurse said to keep up your fluids." 

Tony's mouth remained sealed tight. 

"What did you mean back there?" Steve asked once they were alone.

"You know what I meant, Steve."

"No, I don't." Steve argued, leaning forward in the bedside chair and trying to catch Howard's eye. "You say all of these things and I don't understand half of them. I'm important to someone of yours? What does that mean?"

Howard refused to look at him. "You're a smart kid. Figure it out."

"It means you know a lot more than you're letting on."

"I let on just enough to get you all from day to day. To make the future a little better, a little more perfect." Howard clutched at the flask Steve knew wasn't filled with water. "You're the future, kid. That's what I said. And that's what I meant."

"And how exactly aren't you the future, too?" Howard had said that he was a futurist. He invented a flying car! He was decades ahead of anyone else, and he thought Steve was worth dying for? Howard was a peculiar man. In moods like this, he was best left to his peculiarities, even if Steve wanted to keep pressing. 

Steve left a spare sketchbook and pencil on the foot of the bed. "Your calculations were lost in the firefight," he explained. And then he left. 

"I'm not going anywhere." Steve widened his stance, planting his feet more firmly into the floor. He lifted the juice cup again and offered a bribe. "I'll let you run that test for Barton's bow," he said. 

But Tony turned his head away. 

"I'll even let you pilot," Steve added, which got Tony to turn back. 

"You'll be sitting co-pilot?" He asked as he reached for the cup, looking up at Steve with a slightly less hostile expression. 

There wasn't quite any way to be sure if Tony wanted Steve as co-pilot or not. On the one hand, Tony could show off his intelligence when Barton's bow performed beautifully. On the other, Tony could think of Steve as being overbearing, there to observe and restrict. It didn't make a difference. Steve's answer would be the same: 

"Always."


End file.
